4 ways cross-channel messaging levels up customer engagement

A survey by Lucidpress reveals that “organizations that make an effort to maintain brand consistency experience a growth dividend from doing so.” So let’s take a look at how consistent messaging can help spur customer engagement across their multi-channel journey.

1. Give customers a fluid and memorable campaign experience across different mediums

Not only is it expensive to run elaborate campaign messages across different channels, but a lot of times it’s just downright unnecessary. The key to recall and product awareness lies in successful similar messaging, as Clinique discovered during their Chubby Plump & Shine Liquid Lip Plumping Glass campaign.

Given a print ad design (something that Clinique have excelled at for years), 6-second bumper video ads were created with simple animations transforming the print ad, alongside a similar-look ad for in store marketing.

Through consistent cross-channel messaging, you can ensure your brand speaks persuasively to your target audience while repeating a familiar message. And such consistency helps drive customer engagement and lead to sales.

2. Retarget customers who’ve forgotten “Oh I’ll buy that later”

Retargeting is all about grabbing those customers who’ve already interacted with your brand but failed to complete a purchase. Brand interaction could be a long dwell time on a product page or even items in an abandoned cart. Retargeting is about serving up those items in a different channel, such as an email or via search ads, encouraging the customer to come back.

In a case study of MyFixCycles by webrunnner, after online search advertising, retargeting ads were deployed on Facebook. They really paid off, with a return of $15 for every $1 spent on advertising, or 1,529%.

Having consistency across messaging on your site, then in retargeting (perhaps with added incentive), and then when customers come back to your site (having more personalized messaging this time), can help in conversions.

3. Tailor messaging to each channel

Which type of marketing do you get the most success with engagement in each channel? A poll on Twitter? Sharing a meme on Facebook? Clickable sale banners on your website? Words like “deal” and “ends” in your email subject line?

A cohesive messaging theme geared towards engagement across all channels might lead to a highly successful campaign, if well-crafted and delivered at the right times.

What works best in which channels is always changing. Customers can get what’s known as “marketing fatigue,” not only from overexposure to your brand, but from over exposure to the same types of messaging across different brands.

Here it’s not a case of “steal the best ideas” – you should try and come up with unique messaging, design, text, and delivery to stand out in a sea of marketing.

4. Leverage a strategic local-focused approach

Brick and mortar isn’t dead – directing traffic in store can yield increased results. Not only have searches for “near me” tripled since 2016, when retailers boosted spend with AdWords in hyper-local locations in Q4 2017, they experienced a 107% boost in quarter-on-quarter in-store visits vs a 69% holiday boost for retailers who did not (Think With Google).

If you have a physical store, combining clever hyper-local targeted digital advertising can help get more customers in the door. Once they’re in your store, similar messaging directing them to products, sale items, or services can help influence their purchase decisions.

In-store marketing has expanded within recent years, with in-store now blending with other avenues, via:

Time-limited text coupons to redeem in store – 77% of consumers said they opted in to receiving a brand’s text messages because they wanted to receive coupons or deals. Andx female consumer are more likely to get texts with coupons: 83% vs 68% (texting statistics via TextMagic)

Proximity marketing via beacons – 75% of top 20 U.S. retailers have implemented proximity technologies and 90% of smartphone owners have one or more subscription to access special deals (retail marketing statistics via Proximity.Directory Report)

Webrooming whereby people research online before heading in-store to purchase – 69% of U.S. shoppers are known to engage in this activity (via BusinessInsider)

Measure, measure, measure

Without measuring the effects of your multi-channel messaging, you’ll never be able to accurately gauge the level of customer engagement you are getting, and whether your strategies are having an effect.

Here are some data points to consider measuring:

Customer interaction points and channels throughout your campaign

ROI when a channel is added

Number of interactions per channel vs views

Most successful click-through channel

Put on your analyst’s glasses and see the holistic picture of how each channel performs and how all the channels together contribute to your business goals. This way you can make strategic, data-backed decisions.

The push and pull approach

What’s the push and pull approach? It’s a multi-channel strategy that helps you to get the best results. There’s the “push” – messages via email, SMS, or push notifications, an avenue that is not your own to control, but can still be effective. Then there’s the “pull”, via in-app or on website messages such as sale banners or discount pop-ups – an environment you can fully control.

The mix of the two of these strategies sees a considerable increase in engagement. In Braze’s recent research, they identified that email and in-app messages received 185% more engagement than email alone, and push notifications combined with in-app messages received a full 224% increase over push notifications alone.

Push and pull. Take command of the channels open to you via other platforms, then reel customers in further on the ones that you own.

The final word

The technology is there to help brands create successful marketing campaigns across multiple channels, delivering a cohesive message. Informed planning and strategy, combined with an intelligent feedback loop, will help boost customer engagement and ultimately boost conversions.